Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow
along in your Bibles with me, I've been preaching through the
Book of, Chapter 2 of the Book of Ephesians in the New Testament.
I'm going to finish out that chapter, but I have two messages
that I want to bring on this subject, reconciliation. This is reconciliation part one
and then reconciliation part two. Because that's what the
last part of Ephesians chapter two speaks of, how by the grace
of God, in the salvation of God's elect, both Jew and Gentile have
been brought together In other words, the distinction between
Jew and Gentile is now gone as far as salvation is concerned
and a right relationship with God. And he speaks of this in
Ephesians chapter 2. Last week we dealt with this,
but just going back to it, he says in verse 13 of Ephesians
2, He says, but now in Christ Jesus,
you who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. That was the last message, made
nigh by the blood of Christ. In other words, you're brought
near, you're brought near unto God. You're not alienated from
God now. And who's he talking about here?
Well, he's talking about believers. And specifically, He's talking
about Gentile believers here, but this would include all true
believers, all who have been brought by God to faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ and true repentance. By nature, you see, we're alienated
from God in our minds. Book of Colossians chapter one,
we'll look at that in just a moment. By nature, having fallen in Adam,
into a state of sin and death, and having been born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins, even God's chosen people, even
God's elect, who will be brought to faith in Christ, even they
by nature, as they are naturally born, are alienated from God
in their minds by wicked works. And that's why God has to change
their minds. He has to give them a new heart.
That's what happens in the new birth when the Holy Spirit imparts
spiritual life. It's a literal spiritual resurrection
from the dead. And he gives us eyes to see and
ears to hear. Now all of that comes about on
one ground. And it's by the power of God's
grace based upon the blood of Christ. So he says in verse 13
of Ephesians 2, but now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were
far off are made nigh, brought near by the blood of Christ. It's the blood of Christ that
is the ground of salvation. His blood refers to his death. and his blood means righteousness
established. You see, the only way that God
and sinners can be reconciled is upon the basis of righteousness
established. Now, to be reconciled means to
be brought together. It's kind of like this. You have
two parties who are at odds, and they must be brought together
in unity, made one upon a common ground. And the common ground
here is the blood of Christ, and I'll get to more details
on that in a moment. But it says in verse 14 of Ephesians
2, for Christ is our peace. That's the he there is Christ.
He is our peace, who hath made both one. Now he's talking about
Jew and Gentile. And it says, and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us. Now I explained how
in the temple of that day, the third temple we call it, that
Herod was enhancing and building for the Jews. There was a wall
of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles. could go all
the way into the courts of the temple, and the Gentiles could
only go so far, and there was a middle wall of partition that
separated them under that old covenant system. But now that's
gone. That's what he's saying. Christ
has broken down that middle wall of partition. Verse 15, look
at this. Having abolished in his flesh. In his flesh means his death.
See, Christ is God manifest in the flesh. He's God, every bit
God, and He's every bit man without sin. So when we talk about in
His flesh, we're not talking about sinful human flesh as we
have. But He, in His body, died on
that cross, and doing that, He abolished the enmity, that which
separated, even the hatred. that existed between Jew and
Gentile. He says even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances because the Jews under the old covenant
were forbidden to intermarry and have fellowship with Gentiles.
Now Gentiles could be brought into the Jewish state They had
to adhere to the law. The males had to be circumcised,
all of that. But there was still a separation
between them. And he says, Christ abolished
that for to make in himself of twain, of two, one new man. That one new man is the church
made up of God's chosen people. chosen by God before the foundation
of the world, justified in Christ. That is, their sins are forgiven,
they are declared righteous based upon His righteousness imputed,
and then brought into the kingdom by the power of the Spirit in
the new birth. And this one new man, it's not
Jew and Gentile, it's just the church. And it's called spiritual
Israel. They're spiritual Jews, you might
say, Romans 2 and 28 and 29 states. So making peace. And if you'll
recall, if you heard the message last week, I dealt with in here
in Galatians 3, where Paul explains it to the Galatians. And he says
in verse 26 of Galatians 3, for you are all the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus. What is the evidence of one being
a child of God? It has nothing to do with Jewishness. It has nothing to do with being
a Gentile. In other words, just because
a person is a physical descendant of Abraham does not make that
person a child of God. Absolutely not. circumcision
nor uncircumcision availeth nothing," Paul wrote in Galatians 6. But
he says in Galatians 3.26, For you are all, Jew and Gentile,
the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus. If God has given
you the gift of faith, and brought you to Christ. That's the evidence
that you're a child of God. And verse 27 of Galatians 3 says,
for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ. Now, that's
not water baptism. That's dealt with in other passages.
But that means in union with Christ. Placed into Christ, he
says, you have put on Christ. Now, how do we put him on? Well,
we believe in him. we submit to his righteousness
imputed to us as our only ground of salvation. And he says in
Christ, verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek, that's Gentile,
Greek was a general term there for Gentile, there's neither
bond nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you are
all one in Christ Jesus. You're all one, the one new man
that we just read about over here in Ephesians. And he says
in verse 29 of Galatians 3, and if you be Christ, if you belong
to Christ, then are you Abraham's seed, that's Abraham's spiritual
seed, and heirs according to the promise, and that promise
is the promise of the gospel, which is salvation by grace,
not conditioned on sinners, but conditioned on Christ. Now go
back to Ephesians 2. So he made peace one new man,
So they're reconciled. In verse 16, he says, and that
he, and this is Ephesians two and verse 16, and that he might
reconcile both, both Jew and Gentile, unto God in one body
by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. In other words,
that which separated God's elect from him, by nature, they're
alienated in their minds by wicked works, that which separate him
Christ has abolished. And it says there that he slew,
put to death that which separated them. And then in verse 17, and
came and preached peace. Now that's what reconciliation
is. It's peace made between God and
sinners and between Jew and Gentile. And he says, and preached peace
to you which were afar off and to them which were nigh." So
in other words, everyone who has been brought into the kingdom,
whether they're Jew or Gentile, they're at peace, they've been
reconciled, they've been brought together. And so he says in verse
18, for through him, through Christ, we both, Jew and Gentile,
by the grace of God, based upon the blood of Christ, his righteousness
imputed, have access by one spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, under
the Father. See, that's the work of the Holy
Spirit is to drive us to Christ and so that we approach God in
Christ on the basis of His blood and righteousness. Now, this
reconciliation, you might say it this way, it works vertically
and it works horizontally. Vertically, it's sinners being
reconciled to God on the basis of the blood of Christ, on the
ground of His righteousness imputed. Horizontally, it's our relationship
with brethren in Christ, Jew and Gentile, on that same ground. But the whole basis of it is
being reconciled to God. That's the first issue that has
to be settled. You see, who am I in fellowship
with? Who are my brothers and sisters
in Christ? It's those who have the same
Father. And how do I know they have the
same Father? Because they've been made one with me, with all
believers in Christ Jesus. Now let me show you a verse of
scripture over in 2 Corinthians chapter two. that speaks of this
reconciliation to God very plainly. Now what Paul was doing here
in 2 Corinthians chapter five, he is reminding the Corinthian
believers of the nature and the purpose and the goal of a gospel
ministry, a true gospel ministry. And he's telling them that this
gospel ministry And one of the reasons that he's doing this
in Corinth is because they were a divided people. They divided
over things that were nothing. Over preachers, 1 Corinthians
tells us about that. Over certain issues of what you're
supposed to eat and what you're not supposed to eat, things like
that. But Paul is adamant to show them that, no, now we are
one in Christ Jesus and our purpose is to glorify God in the preaching
of the gospel. And here's the nature of a gospel
ministry. And I won't read the whole chapter,
but look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 18. Now he speaks
here, 2 Corinthians 5, 18, and all things are of God. Now, the all things there that
he's speaking of specifically are all things pertaining to
salvation. He talked about a person who
is in Christ has been made a new creature, a new creation. Well,
that's of God. All things are of God. It's not
of man. Salvation, with all of its blessings, with all of its
benefits, its eternal quality and aspect, its spiritual qualities,
It's all of God's salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord
in its origination as God before the foundation of the world purposed
and planned it. and as He chose a people and
gave them to Christ and made Christ their surety, all of that.
It's of God in its working out, even in the creation of the world
in which God created the world. It's of Him. He created all things. It's of God in its continuation,
in its working out on the cross. Listen, the work of salvation
is not a cooperative effort between me and God. Because if it were
left up to me by nature, I would never cooperate. That's what
the Bible teaches about man by nature. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.
They're spiritually understood, spiritually discerned. You will
not come to me that you might have eternal life, Christ told
the Pharisees. That's all of us by nature. There's none that
seeketh after God. No, not one, Romans three. So
it's of God. In its application, it's of God. The new birth is the work of
God. It's not you make a decision
or you believe and then you're born again. No, you're born again
first and then you'll make the right decision because he gives
us a new heart. Salvation is of the Lord in its
continuation. That's why it's impossible for
a truly saved sinner to be lost again. You people who claim to
be Christian, You believe that sinners can be saved one day,
but if they don't do what's right, they can be lost again. You don't
know the scriptures. I know you've got certain verses
that you pull out, but you're interpreting them wrong. You're
not using responsible rules of interpretation. The Apostle John
spoke of it in 1 John 2, in verse 19, when he spoke of those who
went out from believers, they left the gospel, they left Christ,
they turned against the church. And he said, they were not of
us. Had they been of us, they would no doubt have remained
with us, but they went out from us, he said, that it might be
made manifest that they were not of us. But salvation is all
of God, he says, verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 5. All things are
of God. And when we enter final glory,
that's of God too. It's not of us. It's not of man,
not of works, lest any man should boast. So look back at 2 Corinthians
5, 18. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself. reconciled to God, peace made
between God and sinners, by Jesus Christ, and have given to us
the ministry of reconciliation. That's the nature of a gospel
ministry. It's not just a ministry of condemnation,
but it's a ministry of reconciliation. Because in preaching the gospel,
we're to tell sinners how God is reconciled to sinners, his
people, and how sinners are reconciled to God. And those whom God chose
before the foundation of the world, whom he justified by the
righteousness of Christ imputed, whom he gives life to by the
Holy Spirit, they'll be reconciled to God. Listen, go on, he says,
he's given to us the ministry of reconciliation, verse 19,
he says, to wit, or namely, that God was in Christ. In other words, the Godhead.
The Bible says, in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. God engaged himself in the glorious
person of Christ and the glorious work of Christ, the glory of
God, the purpose of God, everything about God, his reputation, his
honor, his majesty, was totally wrapped up in the person and
work of Christ. And that's why it's important
that we see that salvation is all of the Lord. To wit, that
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Now,
a lot of times people look at that word, world, and they say,
well, see there, that's everybody without exception. And that's
not what it means. What he's showing here is that
he's making the point that those divisions among people in the
world mean nothing as far as being reconciled to God. And
so this is for God's chosen people all over this world, Jew and
Gentile, every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. It's not
everybody without exception. And you wanna know why I know
that? First of all, if the word world here means everybody without
exception, then everybody without exception, no matter what, is
going to be saved because they've all been reconciled to God. Listen
to it. To wit, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself. If I'm reconciled to God, I'm
not under his wrath. Do you understand that? If I'm
reconciled to God, then I cannot be lost forever. And you say,
well, but you've got to accept it. That's not what the scripture
says. You will accept it if you've been reconciled to God. That's
what the Bible teaches. But look on, here's another proof
of it. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing, charging, or accounting their trespasses
unto them. The ones whom he speaks of here
are those to whom God does not charge with their sins. And what
does that mean? Well, hold your finger there.
I know I'm getting into a lot of scripture today, but I want
you to see this. Look at Romans chapter eight.
The non-imputation of sin is salvation. Because if sin is
not imputed, charged, accounted to you, Who's it been accounted
to? It was accounted to Christ. And
if Christ took your sins to the cross and bore them in his body
on the tree, then his righteousness has been imputed to you. Look
at verse 33 of the book of Romans, chapter eight. It says, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. In other words, if sin's not
imputed, charged to you, you're justified. That means your sins
are forgiven and you've been declared righteous in the sight
of God by the righteousness of Christ imputed to you, charged
to you. Verse 34, then it bears on. Who is he that condemneth?
It's Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. If your sins are not imputed, charged to you, That means Christ
died for you, and if He died for you, He was condemned for
you. You cannot be condemned. And He's at the right hand of
the Father right now making intercession for you. That's reconciliation.
Now go back to 2 Corinthians 5. Verse 19, To wit that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. And that's what the church is
all about, preaching the gospel of peace. Peace with God. in Jesus Christ, between God
and his people. And he says in verse 20, Now
then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
by us. We pray you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God. Now, yes, God is reconciled to
his people based upon the blood of Christ, and we preach the
gospel. Now, be ye reconciled to God,
And God's people will, verse 21, is the basis of that. For
He, God the Father, hath made Him, God the Son incarnate, Jesus
Christ, to be sin for us. How was He made sin? By the imputation
of the sins of God's elect to Him. He's their surety. And Christ,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. So there's reconciliation between
God and sinners. Now that's the basis of what
Paul is writing back here in our text. In Ephesians chapter
two, when he says that, in verse 16, read it again, that he might
reconcile both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby, that which separated God and
his people. And what was it that separated
God and his people? Sin separated them. Well, what
did Christ do? Having the sins of God's chosen
people imputed to Him, He came and He took away our sins by
the blood of the cross. That's what He did. Over in the
book of Colossians, it speaks of that in the terms of reconciliation
again. It says in verse 19 of Colossians
chapter one, For it pleased the Father that in him, in Christ,
should all fullness dwell. Verse 20, and having made peace
through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things
unto himself, by him, I say whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, that's all people who are saved. Those who have
gone to heaven, those who are still on earth. And verse 21,
and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind, by
wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled." So, Paul's point
back in chapter 2 of Ephesians, our text, is this. Having been
reconciled to God by the blood of Christ, we are to be reconciled
to one another by that same ground. So he says in Ephesians 2 verse
17, he says, he came and preached peace to you which were far off
and to them that were nigh, verse 18, for through him we both have
access by one spirit unto God. In other words, the ground of
my being reconciled to God And the ground of my brothers and
sisters in Christ being reconciled to God is one and the same. It's the blood of Christ, the
blood of his cross, his death, his righteousness, imputed, charged,
accounted, which we receive by God-given faith. And that's the
nature of a gospel ministry, brings us together in one. That's why we preach the gospel.
Paul said in Romans 1 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek also, Jew and Gentile. It came through the Jews. God
providentially brought it into the world through the Jews, but
to the Jew first, but also to the Greek. And he says, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. There's the ground. That's the
merits of the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the ground of salvation. It's the ground of justification. It's the ground of reconciliation,
the ground of peace. He says, from faith to faith,
from hearing the gospel, faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God, and believing that gospel by the gift of faith,
And then he says, the justified, Jew and Gentile, shall live by
faith, by looking to Christ, resting in Christ, following
Christ, loving Christ. That's reconciliation right there. That's what brings those who
are two separated into one new man. the true church of the Lord
Jesus Christ, saved by His grace, redeemed by His blood, reconciled
through Him. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.